When African Americans built tall in business

A group of mostly Durham-based investors, led by Michael Lemanski, bought the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company Headquarters building in 2006 and in 2017 secured about $11 million in new capital to begin renovations to the 1960s-era office building and renamed the building Legacy Tower. When built to emphasize the structure’s prominence, the building was placed at the highest point on the site.

Floors (above ground) 14
Height (architectural) 252ft (76.81m)

Durham, North Carolina

North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company annex building expansion

Johnson Publishing Company HeadquartersChicago, Illinois

Columbia College bought the Johnson Publishing Company Headquarters building for about $8 million from Johnson Publishing in late 2010, and the property has been vacant since the publisher of Ebony and Jet magazines moved out in 2012.

In 2016, after buying Johnson Publishing’s former headquarters, Columbia College put the 110,000-square-foot 11-story building up for sale.

Floors (above ground) 11
Height (architectural) 127ft (38.86m)

Completed in 1971 and home of EBONY and Jet magazines

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Citizens Trust BankAtlanta, Georgia

In 1969, the Citizens Trust Bank constructed a new headquarters building at 75 Piedmont Avenue NE.

In 1982, Citizens Trust Bank sold its 12 story headquarters building, which it built in 1969, for $7 million. In 2007, the building was acquired by Georgia State University.

Citizens Trust Bank relocated its headquarters to 230 Peachtree Street in February of 2016.

Citizens Federal Savings Bank (formerly Citizens Federal Savings & Loan) was a privately-held bank founded in 1956 by A. G. Gaston. In May 2002, Citizens Federal was acquired by Atlanta, Georgia’s Citizens Trust Bank for $10 million in cash.

Chicago, Illinois

Johnson Products is well known company who manufactures hair care products for African Americans. Johnson Products was founded in 1954 by George Ellis Johnson, Sr. and was formerly headquartered in Chicago. In 1971, the company became the first non-white run enterprise to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Ellis Johnson was born in Richton, Mississippi, on June 16, 1927.

George Johnson was the first African American to be elected as a director of the board of Commonwealth Edison Company, in 1971.

Johnson Products Company was sold to Procter & Gamble in 2004.

Atlanta, Georgia

Georgia State University in 2012 to ownership of the Atlanta Life Financial Group building allowing the university to expand its urban downtown Atlanta footprint.

GSU bought the building located at 100 Auburn Avenue and another one at 60 Piedmont Avenue for $10.24 million.

____A non-corporate headquarters buildingLas Vegas, Nevada

Although not originally built by an African American company, this was a building once owned by an African American business.
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Don H. Barden, built one of the nation’s largest African American-owned businesses through casinos and cable television. He died on May 19, 2011 in Detroit at the age of 67 due to lung cancer. Donald Hamilton Barden was born on Dec. 20, 1943, in Inkster, Michigan.

In 2010, Black Enterprise ranked Barden Companies as the 10th-highest-grossing black-owned company, with $405 million in revenue.

Barden began developing real estate in Ohio before turning his focus to cable television in the 1980s. Barden was the founder of Barden Cablevision, which built the cable television system serving Detroit and several suburbs. Comcast bought Barden Cablevision for more than $100 million in 1994. Mr. Barden then opened the Majestic Star, a riverboat casino in Gary, Indiana.

In 2001, Mr. Barden became the first African American owner of a Las Vegas casino when he purchased the Fitzgeralds.

Majestic Star Casino, which operated casinos in Indiana, Colorado, Mississippi and Nevada, filed for bankruptcy protection in 2009. -The New York Times

With construction completed in 1979, The Sundance Hotel opened in 1980. In 1987, the Sundance was sold to Lincoln Management Group (later Fitzgeralds Gaming) and renamed as Fitzgeralds Las Vegas.

Today, The D Las Vegas Casino Hotel is a 34-story, 638-room hotel and casino in Downtown Las Vegas Nevada. In December 2001, with Fitzgeralds Gaming in bankruptcy, The Majestic Star Casino, LLC, owned by Don Barden, bought the property, along with two other Fitzgeralds casinos in Colorado and Mississippi.

In October 2011, several months after Don Barden’s death, his estate sold Fitzgeralds to brothers Derek and Greg Stevens, majority owners of the Golden Gate casino. In 2012, new owners completed a $22 million renovation and rebranded the complex as the D Las Vegas.